Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics

By : William Oettinger
Book Image

Learn Computer Forensics

By: William Oettinger

Overview of this book

A computer forensics investigator must possess a variety of skills, including the ability to answer legal questions, gather and document evidence, and prepare for an investigation. This book will help you get up and running with using digital forensic tools and techniques to investigate cybercrimes successfully. Starting with an overview of forensics and all the open source and commercial tools needed to get the job done, you'll learn core forensic practices for searching databases and analyzing data over networks, personal devices, and web applications. You'll then learn how to acquire valuable information from different places, such as filesystems, e-mails, browser histories, and search queries, and capture data remotely. As you advance, this book will guide you through implementing forensic techniques on multiple platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS, to demonstrate how to recover valuable information as evidence. Finally, you'll get to grips with presenting your findings efficiently in judicial or administrative proceedings. By the end of this book, you'll have developed a clear understanding of how to acquire, analyze, and present digital evidence like a proficient computer forensics investigator.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: Acquiring Evidence
6
Section 2: Investigation
12
Section 3: Reporting

Effective note taking

Your ability to take notes will directly impact your ability to write an effective report on your digital forensic investigation. Your notes will be the foundation of your reporting. A simple phrase that has impacted me as I conduct my exams is if you do not write it down, it did not happen. One of your examinations may take days or months; you will simply not be able to remember what exactly you did on day 14 of your examination. 

The fundamental elements of notetaking should include the following:

  • When you did something
  • What you did
  • What you saw
  • Why you did something

Your notetaking starts when you get the notification, and you have to respond to the scene. This includes the date/time when you are notified, who notified you, and when you arrived at the scene. Document any actions you take; if you collected volatile data, RAM from the system in question, did you alter the digital evidence? The answer will...